The present invention relates to a DVD recording/reproducing apparatus, in more particular, to a DVD recording/reproducing apparatus having a high-speed copying capability.
In recent years, moving picture-capable optical disc reproducing apparatuses that carry video data, audio data, and the like, such as LDs (Laser Discs), VIDEO-CDs, etc have been developed, and have prevailed for the purpose of reproducing movie software titles, karaokes, and the like.
Among them, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) standard that conforms to the MPEG2 (Moving Picture Coding Experts Group 2) international standards and AC3 (Audio Compression 3) audio compression standards has been proposed.
This standard supports MPEG2 as moving picture compression schemes, AC3-Audio, MPEG-Audio, and the like as audio schemes. The DVD standard is also appended with sub-picture data obtained by subjecting a run-length compression to bit map data for applying captions and control data (navigation packs) for applying special reproducing operations such as a fast-forward or a reverse reproducing operation.
The DVD standard also supports the ISO-9660 (International organization for Standardization 9660) and the Micro UDF (Universal Disk Format) so that computers and the like can read computer data.
Further, at present, the DVD-RAM (Random Access Memory) 2.6 GB (Giga Bytes) standard has been finalized, following the standard for the DVD-ROM (Read-Only Memory), i.e., a record medium that is used for DVD-Videos. Then, DVD-RRAM drives take to pervade as computer peripherals.
Then, at present, finalization of so-called RTR (Real Time Recorder)-DVD standard, i.e., a version of the DVD-Video standard, which is capable of real-time recording/reproduction to/from the DVD-RAMs, is nearing.
The RTR-DVD standard is produced based on the DVD-Video standard, which is now released.
Further, a standard of file systems conforming the RTR-DVDs is now under a preparation.
In the file system standard, a minimum length of data wherein audio/video data must continue is defined for allowing continuous reproductions even if defects or track jumps would have occurred during a real-time video recording operation.
A recording on the RTR-DVDs is carried out in pursuant to the file system standard. Here, copy operations of files recorded on a RTR-DVD can be carried out in two cases, i.e., a case of retaining the reproduction of the RTR-DVD, and another case of making copies of files in a PC (Personal Computer)-like. In the former, since reproduced results from source discs are encoded once again in recording on dubbing discs, qualities of pictures reproduced from the dubbing desks become reduced. Further, since the former is carried out in retaining the reproduction operation, the copying operation takes a period of time the same as that in reproducing operation.
While in the latter, since data are copied as a file the copying operation can be carried out without receiving the influence of the rate of the reproduction. Thus the copying operation is carried out at a very high-speed defined by only the disc drive for the dubbing disc. However, if the video data is guarded by the copy protection information, the source disc video data are copied as they are into the dubbing disc. Thus, the latter has a problem that it cannot reflect copy protection information for copied video data. Conventional DVD recording/reproducing apparatus has a defect that since reproduced results from source discs are encoded once again in recording on dubbing discs, qualities of pictures reproduced from the dubbing desks become reduced. Further, since the former is carried out in retaining the reproduction operation, the copying operation in the conventional DVD recording/reproducing apparatus takes a period of time the same as that in reproducing operation.
Further in making copies of files in a PC-like manner in the conventional DVD recording/reproducing apparatus, since data are copied as a file the copying operation can be carried out without receiving the influence of the rate of the reproduction. Thus the copying operation is carried out at a very high-speed defined by only the disc drive for the copying disc. However, if the video data is guarded by the copy protection information, the source disc video data are copied as they are into the copying disc. Thus, it has a problem that it cannot reflect copy protection information for copied video data.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problem and an object of the present invention is to provide a DVD recording/reproducing apparatus with a high-speed copying capability in which video data is reproduced in every unit of video object unit VOBU, and checking of copy protection information is carried out for every VOBU, so that, eliminating defects occurring in cases of copy operation carried out in retaining the reproduction of source disc and a copy operation carried out in PC-like manner, and making possible a copy operation reflecting a copy protection information.
To achieve the above objects, a DVD recording/reproducing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a copy range designator for designating a copy range of data to be copied from a source disc to a dubbing disc, a VOBU fetcher for fetching VOBU according to information designated by the copy range designator, a copy protection information fetcher for fetching copy protection information from control packs in the VOBU fetched by the VOBU fetcher, a copy protection information determiner for determining a type of copy protection type, such as copy-fully-permitted, only-once copy-permitted, or copy-prohibited according to the information from the VOBU fetcher, a copy protection information updater for updating the copy protection information when determined copying of data being permitted, and a disc drive for recording data thus processed into the dubbing disc.
A DVD recording/reproducing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention, wherein data are recorded in the data area in a form divided into a plurality of objects, the respective objects are in turn comprised of one or more data units, the respective data units are in turn packed into a plurality of packs packing therein video data and audio data to be reproduced within 0.4 sec through 1.0 sec, and management packs packing therein data unit reproduction management information are located on the head of the respective data units, and wherein the management area contains therein reproducing order defining information and object managing information, the reproducing order defining information is comprised of one of more pieces of program chain information, the respective program chains are each comprised of one or more pieces of cell information, the respective pieces of cell information include information designating objects to be reproduced, time information for starting presentation of the objects, time information for ending presentation of the objects, and the object managing information manages the object, includes a reproducing section for reproducing data from a source disc, a copy permission determining section for fetching the managing information from the data reproduced from the sourced disc by the reproducing section, reading data in units of the data units according to the pieces of program chain information and the pieces of object managing information to determine copy protection information in the first one of the management information packs, a recording section for recording the data units into a dubbing disc according to instructions from the copy permission determining section only when copying of the data units is permitted, and an information reconstructing section for reconstructing program chain information and object managing information according to information determined in the copy permission determining section, wherein the program chain information and the object managing information from the information reconstructing section are recorded into the dubbing disc.
In a DVD recording/reproducing apparatus according to a third aspect the invention, I-picture data in the data units are transferred to a decoder to be reproduced in the range from the one at time the determining section had determined copying of data being permitted to the last one of the I-pictures.
A DVD recording/reproducing apparatus according to a forth aspect the invention, includes, further to the first aspect of apparatus, a copy range designator for designating a copy range in units of data units, a VOB boundary detector for determining whether if a designated data unit exists on a boundary between objects, a VOB divider for dividing a VOB based on information from the VOB boundary detector if the designated data unit exists on a position other than the VOB boundary, a cell boundary detector for determining if the VOB boundary exists on a boundary between cells, a cell divider for dividing cells based on information from the cell boundary detector if the designated data unit exists on a position other than the cell boundary, and a VOB number updater for updating information designating objects recorded on respective pieces of cell information in the program chain information at the last of data processing.
A DVD recording/reproducing apparatus according to a fifth aspect the invention, includes, further to the first aspect of apparatus, a copy times information fetcher for fetching copy times information from the copy protection information when the determining section had determined copying of data being permitted, and a copy protection information updater for updating the copy protection information by decrementing the copy times by xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d, based on the information obtained in the copy times information fetcher.
The DVD recording/reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is able to carry out a high-speed copying (dubbing) operation while reflecting copy protection information on copied data.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art from a study of the following description and the accompanying drawings, which are hereby incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification.